Author Archives: Matthew Sheldon
I am currently a full-time student at UWM and I am finishing up my degree in Film Studies. I have a deep passion and love for art cinema. Movies have allowed me to enter a magical place in time, to enter the minds of other characters and identify with them; if only for a short period of time. Out of all the different art forms, films are the easiest forms for empathy and I believe great films can even enrich our lives and make us into better people. Throughout the years of watching films I have become so familiar with particular directors that they become something like a close friend when needed: Bresson presents to me the sad world of human weakness and harsh cruelty, Bunuel shamelessly enjoys pointing out the fetishes and absurdities in the most serious of subject matters, Kurosawa celebrates the accomplishes of men in a masculine society, Tarkovsky has me consolidate my feelings through poetry and deep meditation, Fellini shows me the self doubts of an artist and the grotesques of the circus, Antonioni explores the emotional alienation between a man and a woman within the contemporary world of modernization, Ozu presents the universal themes of family and the acceptance of change; And finally every true film lover should ultimately end up arriving at Bergman; a filmmaker who intensely explores the themes of existentialism, bleakness and death, while projecting the guilt and frustrations of living in a godforsaken world. I have a website titled Classic Art Films where I have written over 100 extensive essays on various classic art films from all around the world. I also have a Facebook blog with presently more than 300 followers in which we discuss and debate numerous movies whether old or new, foreign or American, color or black and white. My site has been in continuous development for the past five years and I can proudly say it has been one of my many personal projects I am most proud of.
